


Hound of Hades

by sparklight



Series: Beginnings [5]
Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Genre: First Meetings, Gen, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Pets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:08:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26545765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparklight/pseuds/sparklight
Summary: This is about first meetings. Hades meeting his nephew for the first time, reluctantly realizing what use the young god might turn out to be for him, as well as meeting Kerberos. His first intent is to kill the monster, but Hades quickly realizes he has a problem that Kerberos can probably help solve for him.
Series: Beginnings [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1930411
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23





	Hound of Hades

**Author's Note:**

> :) Just something to explore potential beginnings, a little for Hades and Hermes, but mostly for Kerberos, since he's usually always just already _there_ in the Underworld. But he wasn't always, so how did he end up where he does?

The Underworld was a dark, hidden sprawl under both the physical earth and beyond the metaphysical stream of Oceanus. It was as solid a place in the world as Olympos was, and yet just as easily inaccessible, because it took more than just finding an actual entrance to get into the Underworld. Things found their way in anyway, of course, but few seemed to really care about what the Underworld was, what it was supposed to be and do. 

In fact, up until recently, the place been something of a mess. 

Hades had no idea who, precisely, had been ruling this place before him, if anyone at all. He'd asked Nyx and Erebus only once, and each had been unconcerned and uninterested - they did not remember because they hadn't cared to pay attention to the human shades drawn here. What did rulership of the Underworld matter to them? Their concerns were too nebulous, too untied to the workings of the physical universe for that. Asking Thanatos had gotten him a shrug and a grimace along with a brief 'not one of us'. Predictable, but frustrating. Such things happened, sometimes, with deities from spheres further away taking charge where there was a vacuum, or enterprising spirits taking more than was their due. Whoever it had been, if anyone, they hadn't really been much interested in the human shades, where and how they were supposed to go now that they were here, how to deal with the ones that might be reborn.

Simply, whoever they were hadn’t been interested in all of those boring, practical things that needed to be dealt with if one actually cared about the physical as well as metaphysical state of the world. For if they weren't supposed to have shades slipping right back out, there needed to be some sort of order. Otherwise shades that wandered out again would get lost and angry, turning to bothering the living when said shades found they couldn’t go back to things as they had been, because they weren't reborn but still dead. 

Rubbing a hand over his face, Hades suppressed a sigh. They needed more safeguards against easy exit from the Underworld, but that was one of the things he hadn't had time to deal with yet, dealing with everything else before that since that would hopefully make the shades more willing to stay. Charon was turning out to be an excellent choice for making sure the dead entered if properly buried, but he could not keep an eye on everything that tried to get over the river, and there were other places around the Acheron one could ford, other rivers as well, especially when it came to the dead. None of the individuals and powers in Hades' domain, that he had any sort of actual authority over, were suitable for guarding duty, unfortunately. There were spirits and nymphs aplenty, but they wouldn't have the power or reach necessary to hold a gate. Makaria, as sweet as she was, was most certainly the opposite of suitable to act as a guard of a gate, and her pet project was the asphodels, anyway. Somewhere calm and neutral the shades could cling to until they were ready.

There were the Erinyes, but while he could order them to guard the gate, add that to their honours and responsibility, he could not make them stay there. They had other charges, too, and those would take precedence.

Hades rather wondered if he could put this aside for a while longer. He wasn’t proud of thinking it, for he took great pride in that he was meticulous and took responsibility in his charge, but he was admittedly distracted. 

Leuke was not feeling well, so it was hard to focus on this matter, necessary as it might be but not truly vital, when Leuke had been slowly fading since a couple years. He could not stop it, and both earth and sky knew he'd tried. He could not, though, and though it should be easy to accept considering where and what he was master of, it wasn't. He didn't want to let go. Not yet, not at all. On top of that there was nowhere in this place he would like to let Leuke fade into, not even the asphodels, as sweetly thoughtful as they were. And she would fade here, into this place, for by now Leuke was so tied to the Underworld she neither could nor would go anywhere else when she died.

"Lord Hades?"

He almost jumped, completely having missed anyone's approach, and furthermore almost snapped at the intruder on his thoughts. He suppressed the first urge into a slow, controlled turn, and the second into pressure in his jaw until he could speak and reveal nothing but dismissive flatness. 

"What?"

Iris flinched a little, shifting on her feet and setting the faint gleam about her golden wings rippling around her at his tone, but just because he had to acknowledge her did not mean he had to be welcoming. He was busy. Unfortunately, Iris never came here unless there was reason, and if it was about an oath she did not need to come to him but would rather go directly to Styx. Which he knew she preferred, anyway. Alas for both of them, then, that it was clearly him she had some message for.

"There's some unrest that's closest to your realm, Father Ze---"

"What is that?"

Iris blinked, snapping her mouth closed and her feathers ruffling, though there was no other proof of her annoyance at having been interrupted. She also wouldn't voice such a thing. Not to his face, not behind his back, so the only thing colouring her voice when she spoke up was confusion.

"What is... what, Lord Hades?"

Frustrated and annoyed, Hades bent down and whipped a hand out, quick enough neither Iris nor his target had a chance to so much as flinch before he’d grabbed hold. Straightening back up, he held the child up by his loincloth, cool, narrow stare switching from toddler to goddess. 

" _This_." 

Of course he knew who he was, this annoying trespasser, though he hadn't met him yet before this. He just wouldn't have expected to find him here of all places. Hermes dangled from Hades’ hand quite happily, unflinching in the face of his dark expression.

"Hi, Uncle." He giggled like this was all terribly amusing and a very good joke, and Hades looked from toddler nephew to divine messenger once more, eyes narrowing further to bare slits. He could feel a headache coming on. Iris, who'd been staring at Hermes with blank confusion, looked up and blanched at his expression.

"I--- I don't know! No one would usually be able to... I came here as I always did, I didn't notice anything!" Iris wrung her hands, her wings fluttering for other reasons entirely this time. 

Hades suppressed the need to sigh. This shouldn't be possible. Very few were the gods who could easily pass between the Underworld and any of the realms above, whether mortal earth or immortal skies. A child, this _baby_ , being able to do so, one who didn't even have his honours yet, was incredible. And incredibly annoying, because from what Hades had heard of Hermes so far implied this wouldn't be the last time this would happen now that Hermes knew he could do this. Still, there might have been some oversight, and maybe the child clinging to Iris as she passed over had allowed him to go along with her, unnoticed. It was possible. But when Hades had spotted him, while he'd been standing in Iris' shadow, he hadn't been touching her.

"Well?" Looking down at Hermes again, he jostled him and completely ignored the almost watery-eyed pout he got for that.

"Uncle!" Hermes protested and then, completely contrary to his earlier protest, made himself swing around, using Hades' hand as a pivot, as amused by that as any child would be. "Did nothing. Just wanted to see where the pretty rainbow was going."

Hades glowered at the child for another long moment, lips pressed thin. For all that Hermes was already prone to mischief and lying to get out of said mischief, young as he was, it could still be the truth, for all that. The child was certainly fully divine and would get his honours in time, and while young, showing hints of suitable charges early wasn't unusual. But that this would be part of it... For as much as they might need more who could pass between, Hades would have offered much for it to not have been this unrepentant troublemaker. He could not see any indication that Hermes would magically become more tolerable and less mischievous as time passed. 

He didn't have time for this. With a displeased grunt he took Hermes properly in his arms, to kiss the crown of the boy's silky head of hair as a blessing. He completely ignored the wide-eyed, childish happiness on Hermes face as well as the small hands reaching for him and shoved him into Iris' arms.

"I don't have time for this. Take him back to his mother after you're done here. Now, what was it?"

Iris, staring down at the innocently-blinking Hermes, his eyes wide and shimmering like the clearest water found in pure, shallow ponds, started at Hades' demand. Shifting her arms a little awkwardly around the child, though also tightening her grip when, as soon as her gaze was off him, Hermes squirmed enough he might easily slip out of her arms if she was the slightest bit inattentive. Hades scowled at his nephew and he froze, wide eyed and sweet again. 

" _Behave_." He had no illusions about the odds that if Iris failed to hold onto Hermes they'd have to go searching the whole of the Underworld for the slippery toddler. It was clear the young god was very interested in where he'd found himself, but Hades was neither minded nor did he have the time to be a babysitter, and the Underworld was hardly safe enough to leave a young god like this free to explore it. Hermes probably thought he was well-equipped for it, or could wriggle his way out of any danger, but though he was, like any divine child of a certain amount of power, certainly not as helpless as a mortal of the same age - even newly born Hermes had shown the difference between the children of gods and mortal babies - that did not mean he was actually invincible. 

Hermes pouted at him and sighed as if this was all very tragical and he was greatly put upon for clearly having done nothing to deserve such a reprimand, but subsided. Hades didn’t allow himself to soften. No doubt Leuke wouldn't have minded to watch the child until he could have been brought back up to his worried mother's arms, but Leuke was not well, and Makaria, though of a suitable age to play babysitter, should not need to. 

As such, Hades refused to let the troubles Hermes would cause by getting away have a chance to happen.

"Ah, yes," Iris cleared her throat and nodded, straightening up though she was still quailing a little under Hades' impatient stare, "as I mentioned, a disturbance. Though it is above, it's the closest to one of the weak points that would lead to the Underworld, so Father Zeus thinks you ought to deal with it, Lord Hades."

"And my brother can't?" Grunting in annoyance, Hades had the urge to refuse simply because he was of an ill temper today. Had been for months, honestly, and only Leuke and his daughter had been able to soothe it even a little. The problem of course being that since Leuke's slow fading was part of the reason for his ill temper, that was quite the tangled catch. "I'm busy, and it's not _in_ the Underworld yet."

Ergo, why should it be his problem? He'd have thought Zeus would be pleased for a chance to deal with any potential threat and show his power and mastery of the realm. Sure, that was slightly petty, and while as true as it was unfair of a judgement, it was caused, again, by Hades' current irritability. He did not precisely mind rendering Zeus assistance if he should actually need it, but any moment he was away from actually dealing with the still-settling Underworld and the shades was more time for such work to pile up. He didn't have anyone suitable to delegate such things like some part of the judging of souls to, yet. Makaria, not necessarily too young by now, was too sweet and empathetic.

"The earth, your brother reminds you, is shared between all three of you, Lord Hades," Iris said patiently but also eyeing him with eyes large enough to rival his wriggling nephew, still securely caught in her arms and silently begging him not to force her to go back and inform the lord and master of Olympos that he'd refused. "And he said that he thought you might have the better chance between them to feel out where the thing might have come from."

"Ah." Hades sighed, then, and dipped his head in reluctant acquiescing. They were suspecting there was some offspring of Gaia's hidden somewhere, but they weren't sure. The earth was not forthcoming, and while one of Phorcys and Ceto's daughters had gone missing a while ago, Poseidon, the one time he'd approached them about it, had returned with the parents themselves apparently not expressing any concern. It might be nothing, but the earth trembled with some shifting power, and they were all concerned about it. Even more so since they could not figure out what or who, or where. "I'll deal with it. Now---"

"Uncle! I want to have a look around!" Hermes' childish voice raised in a protesting cry, and Hades looked down, though even if the boy ducked his head in true or feigned bashful apology for the displeasure on his face, he was clearly not apologetic at all. "I can be careful!"

Children.

"If that's truly what you want to do, come back _later_ , when you have your honours, young Hermes. Then we might see about it." Glaring until his nephew dipped his head in something that was enough of a serious agreement Hades felt reasonably sure it might actually take that long until he saw him down here again, or at least long enough he could spare the time to chase the child down and discipline him if not, he looked back up at Iris. "Tell his mother to keep a better eye on him. Perhaps she ought to consider tying him up, like one does unruly dogs."

" _Uncle_!" Hermes wailed in offense and Iris, for once, smiled a little, momentarily relaxing even in Hades' presence.

"I'll do so, Lord Hades, and bring Father Zeus the tidings that you will deal with this."

She was gone in a flicker of rainbow light, and, after Hades looked around to make sure she had not lost Hermes in her passing, he relaxed. If the boy could come back here entirely on his own, he would consider talking to Zeus about potential additional honours for Hermes, since he might well be suited for them. He was sure he would regret it, but one had to take help where it came. For now, his nephew was an annoyance and a baby and would only be in the way, no matter how divine he was.

Assured there were no nephews left behind that would require babysitting or rescuing, Hades closed his eyes and stretched his attention out and up, towards the edges of his realm. Zeus had said the disturbance ought to be somewhere near one of the weaker spots... There. Nodding, Hades called one of the Cocytean nymphs to himself and bade her fetch his helmet - his bident he simply reached for and it materialized in hand, sleekly black like airless, starless night and shimmering in the refracted light from the jewels set in the ceiling. This might be unnecessary precautions, but better prepared precaution than taken unprepared, especially when it came to something potentially connected to Gaia. It was impossible to know when the primordial mother of all might turn against them like she had against her previous generations of children and grandchildren, her ire sparked by some incomprehensible offense.

No matter Zeus' hurry in sending Iris down and urge him to action, Hades walked off no more hurried than at a stroll, though his grip on his bident was knuckle-achingly firm. If he had to fight, he would, and if he needed help, he knew he would have it - especially when up above, it would be even easier for an emergency message to reach either of his brothers.

Hades passed along the edge of the newly sprouted asphodel meadow after a couple steps through his palace's corridors, taking an entirely reflexive breath. All he smelled was something vaguely dusty and the pervading scent of marsh rot. The asphodels, like anything else that grew down here, did not have a scent of their own, not even of growing greenery. They might be real plants, but they weren't plants such as the asphodels on the surface were, much like the pomegranates in the orchard Hades himself had started wasn't the same. Not the same, but pretty nonetheless. Out in the middle of the field Makaria was walking through the tall, swaying blooms, pale like the blossoms and her hair dark like the swampy earth they grew from. Around her there was the suggestion of shades, following her with distracted, empty curiosity. They were a little too busy within their own selves to notice much of anything, but Makaria always drew a train of them, her presence soothing even those who had not died sweet deaths in old age or sleep. Maybe especially to those who hadn’t. The field, Hades would easily admit, had been a good idea, though initially he hadn't thought it would make much of a difference. There'd been no harm in indulging his daughter, however, and now the shades who were supposed to be here were more easily kept in the single location they should stay in.

He passed by without drawing attention to himself, since, for all that he wasn't hurrying, he did feel some pressure of time. It wasn’t anything specific, just the same source that wished him to be prepared even if it wasn't necessary. He didn't know yet, after all, and that could lead to unfortunate consequences. Hades crossed first the Cocytus and then Acheron, though walked along the latter's white-pebbled shore for some distance before he turned to face the dark earth and took one, decisive step forward.

Sunlight embraced him like his mother, inescapable and ruthlessly, if loving. Late summer dusted his tongue in dry sweetness and prickled even drier heat on exposed skin, creeping in under the short sleeves of his tunic and the fall of it over his knees and thighs. Too hot, to be wearing this, but the seasons above mattered little down below. It didn't take long to find what was causing the disturbance, for Hades had to duck a crumbling clod of earth flying through the air as soon as he appeared. The projectile, of course, hadn't been intended. It wasn't like he was visible, and the digger had its back turned to him - though the snake head at the end of the sinuous, snake-like tail seemed to follow his steps with surprising accuracy, its tongue flickering out at every step he took. Ignoring that for the moment since the rest of the animal wasn't turning towards him, Hades skirted along the shore of the physical, mortal river of Acheron to match the ghostly, real one beneath, though it was only part of this river that would match the flow of the one below. He needed a better look at what he was facing before he decided what to do about it, though both Poseidon and Zeus would undoubtedly have attacked immediately.

Not that Hades wasn't tempted to do so, since the element of surprise seemed yet to be on his side regardless of that snake-like tail following his movements. But, again, he wanted to be prepared, and if that lost him some other advantage, that would simply have to be dealt with as it was. 

The snaking tail wasn't the only feature to take note of as potential hazards when he did attack. The creature was canine-looking in shape if one disregarded the number of heads and the snake parts, which didn't just mean its long, thick tail; it had a veritable mane of smaller snakes in sleek, vertigo-inducing motion around its neck, from the base of each canine head to the base where the neck joined the body, hiding the split where each head's own neck split from the main. The top of its heads reached Hades' hip, if he'd have been foolish enough to step up beside it to compare, though it was gracefully built for all that, a little longer than it was tall. It was pitch black with the faintest evidence of mottling over its body, just barely visible at certain angles. Its eyes, every time shadow fell over one of the wedge-shaped heads, proved to reflect red, though they were otherwise a rather unassuming brown that could have been sweet if the creature had been a normal dog and it hadn't had the most ferocious snarl about its heads as it tore away at the ground for whatever reason that had struck it, like a fox trying to burrow into a rabbit's den in full focused fury of the hunt to stave off hunger.

It was definitely kin, in a way, monstrous as it was. Gaia did not have a direct hand in its creation, however. That much Hades could tell, but no more. It ought to be enough to allow him to deal with this.

Pressing his lips together and narrowing his eyes under the shadowing weight of his helmet, Hades raised his bident, taking a step or two sideways, to place himself along the canine's side. The snake tail twisted restlessly, its head following his path near perfectly, but the rest of the creature didn't react. Which didn't necessarily mean it didn't know he was there, in whatever way the tail could pick him out by. The apparent lack of reaction could be a trap. Or the tail might be able to see him and react but have no way to inform the rest of the body. Impossible to tell until he attacked, and Hades shifted, ready to do so - and then paused.

This was a dog.

Well, generously speaking it was a dog, rippling snake tail and mane and three heads notwithstanding. That being so, depending on exactly how doglike it might prove itself to be, perhaps he could solve the potential danger this creature posed by solving one of his Underworld-related issues at the same time. Canines could be made to respond to a stronger will, and dogs were excellent at keeping the house well-warned in case of light-footed thieves creeping close, keeping gates well-defended until the household could be roused, if needed. Could keep a gate closed and allow no one to pass, either in or out, without the master’s permission. 

And Hades, as it happened, was in need of something to guard a gate.

Slowly straightening back up, Hades considered this. He would be laughed at something fierce and most embarrassing by his brothers - and would deserve it - if he failed, but that seemed like a reasonable risk to take. It would merely change his approach in how to deal with this, as he was still as prepared as he could expect to be from a couple minutes observation and no full knowledge of the canine's potential abilities. He wouldn't truly be any more or less in danger with his bident in hand or ready to be materialized; it'd been a matter of his intent. That now changed, Hades let the weapon go, allowing it to demateralize as he walked further up the shore. He was now closer to facing the creature than not, which was a better spot to be when, while some element of surprise and first strike was preferred, he wasn't intending either for violence. Not anymore, that was.

Still, he took a moment to brace himself and gather both power and will before he took his helmet off, staring at the canine as it slowly stopped digging and went still. The air filled with a terrible hissing and the noise of scales rubbing against scales. Underneath that there was a reverberating triple growl as the monster looked up from the messy hole it'd been digging.

"Stop that." Voice cool and cold, completely ignoring the furious bristling of fur down the back of the canine's otherwise short and smooth pelt, Hades stared the monstrous dog in the eyes - all of them, even if he himself only had two. Divinity allowed him such freedoms, and divinity was what he let loose now, slowly and meticulously. "And cease that racket."

Dark weight crushed the summer-dry grass at Hades' feet, crystallized the air and made it flicker and heave with the heated pressure as eldritch fire sparked around Hades' head and shoulders. The monstrous dog, half-kin of a sorts as it was, drew breath, grew larger. Became tall enough its head could butt Hades in the chest with ease, though its shape could not stay firmly that way, revealing the creature's age. Useful for Hades - he doubted it'd be able to keep up this display for long, and ultimately a younger creature would be easier to bend to his hand. The thick snake tail was at a stiff angle behind it, though in contrast the mane of snakes was a heaving ripple of motion, every hissing head turned towards the threat much like the three dog heads were, teeth bared and snarling.

"You're being ridiculous, I hope you're aware," Hades said, just the faintest bit of a sneer to his voice as he tipped his head, firming the weight of his stare. "Sit."

The whole creature rippled, a rattling rustle from the mass of snakes matching the spreading bristle as it started barking, revealing the earlier strange reverberation to its growl hadn't been a fluke. The noise of it grew to a quake in the air, taking up space it shouldn't.

Then the canine lunged.

Perhaps he should've reserved more space between them. Too late now. Hades drew his divinity tight around him, ready to unleash. He couldn't let too much loose, though it was improbable the animal would be lethally injured if he managed to be that careless. That really wasn't Hades' greatest concern; the point was to keep injury to a minimum, to impose his authority and dominance on the creature, not to _harm it_. It'd be harder to tame, if he hurt it, it'd be less willing to listen and obey through anything but fear, if he did it that way. So he wasn't going to do it that way. Hades stood, a calm, negatively lit center of the growing storm around him, like a rip current under apparently sweetly calm, dark waters next to shore, and waited. One leaping step. Two. The creature coiled itself for a third, which would let it within reach to attack bodily slam into Hades and tear him apart. Or attempt to do so, anyway. 

Hades took a breath and let go just as the dog leaped.

" _Sit._ " His voice was fire and the eternal turn of endless darkness under the earth; furious, airless weight that flared up around him and out from him. The creature's slow, snarling barks cut off into a growling whine as it jerked in the air. Landing in a stiff, awkward hunch at Hades' feet, head down and tail softly uncertain, its snake head wove back and forth. The mane was still hissing like water thrown on a heated skillet, each and every little snake rising up as Hades slowly reached one hand out, palm flatly angled. They stared at each other, Hades and the monstrous hound, though the latter's set of eyes kept turning away and the bristling slowly smoothed out. Hades pulled the weight of himself back a shade, and didn't stretch his hand out further, but also didn't retreat. Certainly didn't look away, his physical stare still weighty enough to crush mortal will and body both. Lucky, then, that this creature wasn't mortal.

Slowly, the stiff, backwards angle of the ears softened into indecisiveness, revealing the elegant wedge shape of them as they twitched forward and back and the animal started whining quietly as Hades remained an unmoving pillar of cold power. Finally, as the snake tail curled in under its body and the mane quieted and stilled, the creature tilted forward, stretching out without moving from its hunched position. It whined as one wet nose bumped into Hades' offered fingers, then a second, third. Tentatively, it licked his fingertips, and Hades, still watching for any sign of this being a trap - this was no mere animal, mortal or not, after all - tucked most of his divinity away and slowly knelt. Putting his helmet on the ground beside him, he stretched out his other hand.

The creature stiffened but didn't pull back, and though there was the slightest bit of bared teeth as Hades' hand came to rest on top of one of the surprisingly graceful heads, all three mouths softened again when all he did was to lightly stroke that head. The snakes nearest to his hand as he reached one of the ears hissed, twisting around restlessly, but as the first tiny snake stretched forward, all that touched pale skin was the flicker of a tiny tongue.

"Hm." He should be wary, still, and he most certainly was, but he could not hold back the tiny smile that pulled on his lips, soft and unguarded. 

The dog stopped whining, and while it was still keeping its gaze mostly averted and body lowered, its ears slowly rose to becoming erect the longer Hades knelt, simply petting. Finally one of the other heads bumped the hand he'd been using, pushing in under his palm slightly, and, feeling something he told himself was merely the sweetness of success but was far softer than that around his heart, Hades switched which head he was petting. His other hand got courted for the same behaviour by the last head, and, since that merely seemed like an expedient solution, he raised it to pet that head, too. The middle one, which he'd started out with, whined, then quieted, a certain cast of offended incredulity to it. Hades did the creature the favour of doing nothing to call attention to the fact that it clearly was displeased that particular head was no longer getting any positive attention, regardless that the other two heads were certainly attached to the body and was as much it as the one was. 

"I think this will work."

He'd have to be careful, of course, and he couldn't let it loose by the gate immediately, but now that he had this perfectly excellent solution within clear reach, Hades refused any other outcome than complete success. Besides, as soon as he was certain he had the canine fully tame and could present it to Makaria and Leuke, they would both be delighted, he was sure.

"Kerberos, I believe. Do you hear that?" Hades looked down, focusing on each head in turn, a had on top of a smooth forehead. "That is now your name. Kerberos."

It was fitting, after all, and if he already had a name Kerberos certainly didn't take that moment to inform Hades of what it might be. Because, with that clear, alert look on his faces as he barked once, making the air squirm from the reverberation, Hades had no doubts that he could make it clear what his name was, if he'd had one. But he hadn't, and now he did.

The thick snake tail at the end of the sleek body revealed itself to rest at a curl when it wasn't worked up. It was very charming, and Hades' little smile widened a shade further.

"Come, then," he said as he stood up, taking his helmet with him, "I'll show you your new home, and a much easier way to get there than _digging_."

He eyed Kerberos with warning weight, for he was even more certain now that the monstrous canine really had intended to break into the Underworld, for whatever reason. Kerberos dropped into a smile and vaguely waved its still-curled snake tail, as if it had done absolutely nothing wrong, surely. Hades snorted and, with a shake of his head, dropped one hand fearlessly into the mass of snakes to rest his hand at the base of the middle head's skull. The snakes rustled and a couple hissed, but none tried to bite him.

Yes. This would work out fine, he could see it. Excellent.


End file.
